Anxiety

Having anxiety means feeling worried or fearful. You might worry about things like school, family problems, or issues with your friends. You might feel fearful of something bad happening to yourself or someone you care about, or you might worry about getting a bad grade on a test.

It’s normal to feel anxiety about stressors that might come up in your daily life. When anxiety becomes too intense, or you feel it for a long period of time, like days or weeks, then you might have an anxiety disorder.

Signs of Anxiety

There are several types of anxiety disorders, including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and various phobias.

You can feel anxiety in two different ways:

Mentally (or “in your mind”). This type of anxiety comes in the form of thoughts. Worrying about the exam you have to take tomorrow or going to a new school where you don’t know anyone are worries and fears that you experience in your mind in the form of thoughts.
Physically (or in the form of physical sensations in your body). This happens when you feel anxious. A fast heartbeat, sweating and shaking, or getting a stomachache are a few examples of the physical sensations that can happen throughout your body when you become anxious.

Often times, anxious thoughts can cause your body to feel those anxious sensations. For instance, if you think about standing up in front of your class next week to give a presentation, your heart rate might go up or your palms might get sweaty. Mental and physical anxiety is often linked in this way—anxious thoughts can lead to anxious feelings.

There are treatments that can help you feel better if you struggle with anxiety. Telling a parent, teacher, or school counselor is important so you can get the support you need.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a type of anxiety disorder that causes excessive anxiety and worry about many different events or activities in your life. For instance, you might worry a lot about your school performance or maybe you worry about something bad happening to someone in your family. People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder tend to worry a lot about the future, meaning that you might worry about a test you have to take in two weeks or you might worry about starting high school next year.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder not only causes all these worry-filled thoughts, but it can also cause the following issues:

Feeling restless or “on edge”—This means that you might have trouble staying calm so you move around a lot or feel very nervous.
Fatigue—This means that you might worry so much that you become exhausted. Fatigue can make you feel very tired; like you have no energy at all.
Difficulty concentrating or feeling like your mind goes blank—Difficulty concentrating means that you might struggle to focus in class or while doing homework and studying. When your mind goes blank, you might suddenly forget what you were about to say.
Irritability—This means that you might get upset or annoyed easily. You might feel like little things annoy you more than they used to.
Muscle tension—When you experience muscle tension, you might feel tightness or pain in your back or neck. Some people experience headaches.
Difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep—This symptom means that you might lie in bed at night and struggle to fall asleep. Maybe it’s because you start thinking a lot and worrying at night. Other times, you might wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to fall asleep again. Maybe you’re a restless sleeper, which means that you feel yourself tossing and turning a lot or like you can’t get comfortable in bed.

Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety Disorder is a mental health disorder that causes an intense fear of interacting with others and/or being in social situations that might cause them to become embarrassed. Social situations include places like school, birthday parties, a coffee shop, or the grocery store. It’s normal to get nervous if you’re starting a new school year—or at a new school altogether where you don’t know anyone. Everyone knows how it feels to get nervous as you’re walking into a room and you feel everyone is looking at you. However, Social Anxiety Disorder is different from everyday situations where you become scared or get a bit nervous. People with Social Anxiety avoid situations like having a conversation with other students or their teacher, meeting someone new, or eating lunch in the cafeteria where other people can see them. The fear happens because the person is afraid that others will notice that they’re nervous and think badly of them or judge them. It doesn’t help that people with this disorder will often get so anxious that they show physical symptoms such as:

Nausea or upset stomach
Trembling or shaking
Sweating
Blushing
Rapid heartbeat

When these physical symptoms occur, the person becomes even more afraid because they think others will see them in this state and criticize or judge them for it. Their greatest fear is of going through some type of huge embarrassment in front of others. People with Social Anxiety will often avoid, or struggle with, the following:

Going to school
Getting up and speaking in front of a group or giving a class presentation
Playing on a sports team
Making and keeping friends
Trying new things
Being with or around people, especially strangers

If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, call 911 or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

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